A man stabbed a defenceless grandmother 40 times as she lay in her bed in a "cowardly and vicious" attack.

Ian McGregor was jailed for 12 years for the attack on 57-year-old Elspeth Burns after she had earlier thrown him out of her house for telling an offensive joke.

The High Court in Glasgow previously heard Ms Burns was alone at home in Kelso in the Borders when 30-year-old McGregor returned and attempted to kill her.

Ms Burns suffered a punctured lung, an injury near her carotid artery and multiple stab wounds to her body and throat during the assault.

McGregor was convicted of attempted murder in May and returned to court on Thursday to be sentenced.

The court heard that after asking McGregor to leave her flat for telling an "off-colour" joke, the grandmother went to her bed suffering from a migraine.

But he later returned and launched the knife attack.

As he was being sentenced Lord Summers told him: "You have been convicted of attempted murder. Your victim suffered multiple stab wounds and was fortunate to live.

"She was alone and in bed when you carried out this cowardly and vicious attack."

McGregor denied the charge and claimed he was elsewhere when Ms Burns was stabbed, but he was unanimously convicted and also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to destroy evidence.

He told defence counsel David Nicholson he had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and suffered "crippling social anxiety".

The court heard that McGregor has eight pages of previous convictions including serious assault, drugs offences and breaches of the peace.